When an ocean liner turned upside down in 1972, so did the movie industry.
It was the year of "The Poseidon Adventure," producer Irwin Allen's Oscar-winning blockbuster that launched a slew of disaster epics from "The Towering Inferno" to "Earthquake" and beyond. Based on a novel by Paul Gallico, the shipwreck survival saga remains durable enough to inspire two remakes within a year of each other. NBC airs the first Sunday, Nov. 20, and the second -- simply titled "Poseidon" -- is slated for theatrical release in the summer of 2006.
Filmed in South Africa, the three-hour television update keeps the basic premise but changes some details.
A tidal wave doesn't overturn the S.S. Poseidon this time; a terrorist-planted bomb does. A character named Mike Rogo is still aboard, but instead of the beat cop first played by Ernest Borgnine, he's now a Homeland Security agent portrayed by Adam Baldwin. And senior citizen Belle Rosen remains a passenger, but rather than being the doting wife and expert swimmer embodied by Shelley Winters, she's now a widow played by veteran British actress Sylvia Syms.